Thunder power! In a Frankensteinian breakthrough, scientists have for the first time charged a mobile phone using lightning bolt.
Famous English author Mary Shelley in her gothic novel 'Frankenstein' used lightning to breathe life into the Frankenstein's monster, some 200 years ago.
The ground-breaking, proof-of-concept research by the University of Southampton, UK, into harnessing the power of lightning for personal use, is an industry first.
The finding could potentially see consumers tap one of nature's significant energy sources to charge their devices in a sustainable manner, researchers said.
The study was undertaken to investigate how natural power resources could be used to a charge a mobile phone with an energy simulation similar to that of a bolt of lightning.
"We were excited by this challenge presented to us by Nokia. Using an alternating current driven by a transformer, over 200,000 volts was sent across a 300mm gap - giving heat and light similar to that of a lightning bolt. The signal was then stepped into a second controlling transformer, allowing us to charge the phone," Neil Palmer of the University's Tony Davies High Voltage Laboratory - one of the world's leading high voltage laboratories - said.
"This discovery proves devices can be charged with a current that passes through the air, and is a huge step towards understanding a natural power like lightning and harnessing its energy," Palmer added.
"This is a first for any mobile phone company to trial this kind of technology. We obviously aren't recommending people try this experiment at home, but we are always looking to disrupt and push the boundaries of technology and find innovative ways to improve the performance of our products," said Chris Weber, Executive Vice President for Sales and Marketing at Nokia, which collaborated in the study.
